WHAREROA.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVIII, 23 July 1924, Page 8

WHAREROA.

(From Our Own Correspondent.) CHILDREN’S PARTY. A very successful children’s party was held in the local hall on Friday evening last, a large number of juveniles, with their parents, being present. Mrs Death and a few, local ladies organised the affair, and Miss Florrie Laurent, Mr G. Murphy, 'and Mr H. Steffert supplied the musical items, the latter also rendering a eouple of songs. An interesting exhibition of manual drill Avas given by the children under the able tutelage of their temporary teacher, Mrs Newberry. PAINFUL ACCIDENTA painful accident happened to Mill. Kavanagh last week. While inspecting a windmill he Avas unlucky enough to get his hand caught in the cogs, with the result that the top of the- index finger of.his right hand Avas taken off above the nail. At first it Avas feared he Avould lose the Avhole finger, but luckily he has escaped this mutilation. FOOTBALLERS’ BALL. Our local football representatives are going to have a special ball -in the Social Hall on Friday next, and a big attendance is expected thereat. On Wednesday afternoon they are having a practice match Avith a. view to securing a place in the result of the Wednesday competitions. Without assiduous practice it is unreasonable to expect lads Avhose only relaxation from hca yv toil may be the occasional sprint round the cowyard with the farm hull as pacemaker to compete successfully Avith toAvn teams that ]nn r e so much opportunity to study combination. MAORI NAMES. 1 notice a correspondent in Monday’s Star takes exception to the late Mr. Percy Smith’s version of the derivation of the word “ManaAvapou” as rendered by me in a previous issue. The folloAving is the Avording of the story as related in “History and Traditions of the Taranaki Coast,” chapter “Poupoto .... stole from Ngakura Matapo, one of the principal men of tho kurahuupo (canoe) passengers, a valuable greenstone ornament called hurakiko. Poupotp came to Patea with Turi; and after a time Ngakura Matapo came oA'erland by the West Coast, folloAving up in Turi’s footsteps, determined to recover his lost treasure. One night he arrived very tired at the banks of the ManaAvapou River, about ten miles north of Patea, and laid himself doAA r n to sleep. . . On ascending the hill next day, Ngakura Matapo there found Poupoto, Avhose head lie cut off, and stuck his heart on a pole, hence the name of the place which it bears to this day.”

It will be seen that although I transposed the avenger with the fugitive in the matter of sleeping on the banks of the stream, I gave a fairly correct paraphrase (from memory) of Mr. Smith’s account. As ihe president of the Polynesian Society wa* perhaps the most erudite of all those who have written on Maori lore, his version (probably obtained from some old rangatira versed in the traditions of his race) is entitled to the utmost respect. As for surveyors’ nomenclature. in many cases Maori place names are not correctly given. Take your own, for instance, called after the old hapu Te Hawera., situated about two miles south of the town between the Main South Road and the railway line. “Why you call that place Hawera? That Taupta-tei V’ said an old native of the Meremere pa to me some years ago. On referring this matter to Mr. Wm. Minhinnick, a resident of about fifty years in this locality, and of course thoroughly familiar ■with Maori names, he also agreed that the correct name for your town was Taupatatei. the “taupata” referring -to the shrub of that name (coprosma baueriana) which apparently at one time was indigenous here. Take also Ohangai. wrongly named from the old pa Ohangai in Mr. R. Brewer’s property, between the Tawhiti and Tongahoe streams, and many other instances of faulty designation.